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Working hard for decades, many people have more or less thought about retirement. When you think about retiring or enjoying the warm afternoons, or strolling in the sunset, there is a little excitement. However, retirement also poses a potential health risk. A study by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics on Chinese populations shows that retirement may accelerate cognitive decline and increase the risk of dementia, especially among women.

The researchers analyzed the data in the (CHARLS) of the China Health and Pension Tracking Survey. The CHARLS survey conducted long-term follow-up of more than 17,000 subjects over the age of 45. By testing their cognitive abilities, episodic memory, and overall mental health, they collected a set of high-ranking families and individuals representing Chinese middle-aged and elderly people. Quality data to analyze population aging issues. The survey also asked whether participants participated in the new rural social endowment insurance, because participation means that these people are more likely to enter retirement.

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The researchers found that in areas where the new rural insurance was implemented, the cognitive ability scores of subjects aged 60 years and older were much lower.For those who did not implement the new rural insurance area, the immediate memory, delayed memory and comprehensive memory scores were significantly behind, and cognitive ability decreased significantly. The decline in delayed memory is generally considered to be an accurate predictor of dementia. In addition, the risk of cognitive decline is more pronounced among women, twice as many as men. Because women live longer than men, cognitive decline may lead to a decrease in women’s healthy life expectancy.

The researchers said that the study first examined the cognitive impact of retirement in developing countries, and the results were similar to previous findings on the impact of retirement on older people in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, supporting brain activity. Reducing the hypothesis that will accelerate cognitive decline.

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Principal Investigator of the study, Dr. Plamen Nikolov, Assistant Professor of Economics at Binghamton University (Binghamton University) said: “Despite retirement and many Health benefits are relevant, but the study suggests that retirement can also have some negative effects on the quality of life associated with cognitive abilities. Reduced social interaction and social participation after retirement may lead to cognitive decline and increased risk of dementia. Policies should be implemented to encourage retirees to engage in more social interactions and to encourage older people to have more opportunities to use their brains as they do when they are in office.”

The association between thinking activities and cognitive abilities has also been confirmed in other large studies. The University of Gothenburg

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To avoid a decline in cognitive ability after retirement, it is better to try to keep thinking and enrich your daily work and life from this moment!

References

[1] Do Pension Benefits Accelerate Cognitive Decline? Evidence from Rural China. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp12524.pdf[2] Najar et al. (2019) Cognitive and physical activity and dementia: A 44-year longitudinal population study of women. Neurology, 10.1212/WNL.0000000000007021[3] Early Retirement: Living the Good Life Bad for the Brain?. Retrieved Nov 15 ,2019,from Https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/921239

This article is from WeChat public account:Medical New Perspective (ID: HealthHorizon)